The present invention relates generally to telephonic switches and, more particularly, to an audio communications interface, method and communications system for providing audio communications between a remote agent and a telephonic switch through a conventional agent telephone and a conventional telephonic console connected to the telephonic switch. Data communications may further be provided through an agent terminal connected to a host computer which is, in turn, connected to the telephonic switch.
Telephone switching systems employing automatic call distributors (ACD) are increasingly being used by businesses to automatically route incoming customer calls to available agents. ACD systems generally include a multiport switch controlled by a central processing unit to interconnect external telephonic units of an external telephonic network with internal telephonic units. An example of such an ACD system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,611 issued to Jones et al. on Aug. 18, 1992, entitled "Pulse Modulated Self-Clocking and Self-Synchronizing Data Transmission and Method for a Telephonic Communication Switching System", the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
In order to further increase the flexibility of telephone switching systems, manufacturers have attempted, with some success, to design systems which permit agents to be stationed at remote locations. Data communications are typically established between the ACD and an agent terminal over a computer network, such as a large area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). Typically, a host computer receives data from the ACD and transmits the same or additional data over the computer network to the agent terminal.
As is known, agents have communicated through prior ACDs by means of telephonic consoles. The telephonic consoles are directly connected to the ACDs and provide both audio and data communications. In an effort to increase agent flexibility, ACD manufacturers have provided data communications over the just described computer network while concomitantly providing audio communications from the telephonic console over a conventional telephone network to a remote agent telephone.
The remote agent telephone is connected via the telephone network to the telephonic console. Unfortunately, to establish audio communications between the remote agent telephone and the ACD, a particular telephone digit sequence must be entered at the telephonic console. A remote agent therefore dials a telephonic console from a remote agent telephone. In response, a party physically located at the telephonic console dials the particular telephone digit sequence on the telephonic console to establish audio communication between the agent and the ACD and, in turn, callers to the ACD. As is evident, the need for a party to manually establish the audio connection is inefficient and wastes valuable human resources. Furthermore, prior systems provide less than complete functionality at the remote agent location.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an audio communications interface and method which substantially automatically provides audio communications between an agent telephone and a telephonic switch through a conventional telephonic console connected to the telephonic switch. A communications system is further needed to provide the aforesaid audio communications and data communications between the remote agent and the telephonic switch.